aRTee

Quick note: 10.1 is available on the mirrors, no reason to start with 10.0... (Oh, and 10.2rc2 (nee, limed05) is out)

I've been running rc2 since Sunday. Check the mirrors, it's there. Build date is March 24th I think. Final, Limed05, as I abbreviate Mandrakelinux Limited Edition 2005, should be out in about 2 weeks, but will NOT be available in packs. As a clubmember you will have early access (typically about a month, not sure how they'll do it this time), and access to some extra packages that others will have to download from a variety of places. My advice: if you want to have early access to iso images, and have no issues with bittorrent, clubmembership is the way to go. If you expect MdkSoft to treat you like a higher class citizen, pass on it. Treat clubmembership like tipping a waiter: for services you've received. If you don't expect too much, you'll be a happy clubmember. If you expect Mdk developers to suddenly fix your bugs because you paid the membership fee - you're not getting it, and you'll be very dissatisfied... BTW, go to the mirrors, and try out rc2. It's now that you have to post bugs to http://qa.mandrakesoft.com so that they can be fixed in the final!

You may want to try pnp OS = Yes in the bios...

Ehm, html email is an abberration I won't touch. I know that it's possible to send messages with inline images, I have received them - not html messages! - and I'd like to know how to create and send them... It must be possible, somehow, no?

No. This would not motivate any manufacturers to make open source drivers possible. The true standard and only path to digital freedom is through fully specified hardware and open source drivers. Because one didn't know there are such things like this. But in that case, that user does have windows. So they can use windows to get the Linux closed source modem driver. True. But then, those newbies are going to be upset about not having their favourite software, etc. One reality with Linux that people will have to accept: it's different, and change needs time and accepting mentality. Well, to be honest, my website cost me way more effort and time, and I think that it has done way more good to Mdk... With over half a million hits, I'd say it's pretty popular for a fan based site... The best I ever got for that from Mdk was some links to my reviews... Disagree. For me, it isn't. It's about being free, independent, in control. Instead of controlled. Lack of openness is present in any company. Management doesn't have to justify to anyone but shareholders. That's the way it works, in the end. They have to think things over and discuss behind closed doors. If you want something completely open, move to debian. Get away from a company owned commercial distribution. On the topic of closed source drivers: if manufacturers fail to assist the development community, I think they should not be rewarded with having their hardware supported in all or any standard distributions. I sincerely hope that some day soon, even graphics cards with respectable specs will have open source drivers. I know you don't care about this (yet), but open source-ness is very important. The GPL is, in the end, more important than Linux. Just as you don't care about closed source drivers, most people don't care about DRM, TCPA / NGSCB, Palladium, and other things that put essential freedoms at risk (such as the freedom of speech). But it's due to those who _DO_ care (and take action) that things don't get out of hand (think 1984 in the Orwellian sense). Richard Stallman is one of those people. Little ol' me is another.

Can anyone tell me how I can create an email with images within the body text, not as an attachment? I can receive such emails without a problem, I just have trouble creating such a message... Side note: searching google / groups for: evolution plus other stuff really doesn't help - on the www it returns loads on regular evolution, on groups, many mail headers contain the name of the mailclient... not happy searching... ;)

addition to what adamw just said, if that is the case, you could do, as root: ln -s /dev/cdrom /dev/dvd and try again with kaffeine.

Clubmembers get access to java - which one cannot distribute normally, check the SUN license - some other non-open source things like Opera, some CAD progam, etcetc. Next, they get some closed source drivers, for ATI, NVidia, and then some - yes, this includes some adsl modem drivers. Then they get to vote on what new software should be packaged for some version of Mdk - usually the latest stable version. I checked, forcedeth driver is included in the regular kernel. I haven't the faintest idea why you thought that it is not included in Mdk?? Without modem drivers for Linux, one can't get onto the web? Whatabout windows? Or, if one doesn't have windows, why does one have a winmodem???? Buy Linux compatible hardware! That's the only way to improve - Linuxcompatible with open source drivers, that is! Ehmm, how so? I have paid out of free will, not for any of the benefits of the club. And for my translations I have gotten a VIP membership, giving access to Silver level stuff. I don't see why you think one has to pay to become a member of the community around Mdk.. MandrakeSoft is a company. No need to disclose everything. Heck, look at SUSE - I posted a bugreport and haven't the faintest idea if anyone ever looked at it. I included the fix that Mdk's buglist had for it, so it should be easy for them to fix it, but that's all. For all I can see, lots of Mdklinux is much more open than RH (not talking about FC here!) SUSE and other commercial distributions (heck, xandros, linspire etc even include proprietary software). There are certainly things wrong with how Mdksoft is executing (or hopefully, has been executing) their stuff, but the points you mention are hardly the large stumbling blocks. I'd say treating amd64 versions differently than regular i586 is imho the major point, next up are the bad marketing (or lack thereof), low visibility, etc... which hopefully the new release cycle will address.

Aren't the makecd scripts available? There's info on how to roll your own on the cooker wiki: http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/twiki/bin/view/...D_s_with_MakeCD Read the preceding info too - tells you how to install from iso images on the hd - forget this messing with cds! It's so '90s.. :D

Most Dells have intel integrated graphics, and those need patches - nothing complicated, but not included. I'd recommend to get a more recent distro, 9.0 is stone age, get 10.1 OE instead, then fix your graphics setup. More info in my mdk10.1oe review on my website, including info on these Dell / intel patches.

I have noticed the same issue with suspend to disk on my laptop - please vote for my bugreport: http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/show_bug.cgi?id=14859 and tell that your suspend also doesn't work anymore! You may also want to report those mouse issues and suspend to ram issues (screen not blanking means suspend to ram / standby isn't going to save all that much battery power..).

You need to make sure the module nvidia gets loaded, in some cases it was necessary to put nvidia in the file /etc/modprobe.preload If xorg tries to start but fails due to the nvidia driver not getting loaded, it will change the config to nv and try again. This way, at least you have graphics - it's a feature. This is not done by harddrake btw. Please don't blame the wrong tool. :D

Why reboot for that? Just alter that file like you have, and do chmod 660 on all audio devices. Edit: can MPD take commands from an IR remote through LIRC? If so, I'll have a look, if not, I'll stick with my xmms setup (see my LIRC/xmms page). My talking hifi never fails to impress any guests...

There is a special plugin that relies on reading the cd data digitally and passing it; forgot the name, something like cdread. Give that a try. BTW you're sure you're trying to read from the correct device?

Read my website, config page. I've been doing this for quite some time -and the new and upcoming Mdk 10.2 / Limited Edition 2005 will be even easier: you can now install from hd or copy all cd contents to hd during installation if you choose to do so, there's a prompt during the first steps of the installation.

do this: ll /dev/dvd and see to what it points - it may point to the wrong device, or not be present at all.

Gowator, you're such a doom thinker!! I'm shocked! Of course they won't have Mdk 11.2 available for download once 10.1OE is finally in the shops. They aren't changing names for nothing. It will be Mandrakelinux Edition 2006! But seriously - I agree this should be fixed. The new release schedule is going to help out a lot on this front. Let's see MdkSoft implement this properly...

urpmi can install from iso images. I just did an install of mdk10.2rc2 from harddrive without using cdrom or floppy - just add the right things to the lilo or grub bootloader. Then you can point to the installation cd iso directory on your system, which means you can install from that - no need to burn a cd or even have a cdrom or floppy drive. Upon later installation, urpmi will mount the iso images as required to install from. Note: during installation from cd/dvd the user gets the offer to copy everything to harddisk, I'm not sure if this creates an iso, but that would lead to the same result. Why should he try it? There's no hinting info in mdk rpms. You wouldn't know, you haven't used it recently. Why should adamw waste his time on that?

Hmm, so you don't care about hardware support?... :P

Gowator: about urpmi and people not knowing it - I noticed in the 10.2rc1 (well, limited edition 2005 rc1, really) that when you open mcc, the first page is the software installer. On easyurpmi, due to the restricted things they cannot really officially mention it - libdvdcss is in the 'free' part, but it's far from free to use in the USA due to the DMCA, as far as most people think. (Meaning, it's not been established in court that the DMCA doesn't forbid libdvdcss, and there has been a mention of a judge that it may not be forbidden....) And that means that since Mdksoft is a company, the MAFIA (Music And Film Industry Association: with as members the MPAA, RIAA) would have an address to get money... BTW agree on the update cd that should be in the box from the moment it becomes available - I mean to say that from day 1 there should be a voucher to send in to get the update cd sent as soon as said update cd becomes available. Maybe even 2 per year. All packs in the shop should leave the door with the most recent update cd included, of course. Just as all preloaded machines should have the updates inside.

Well, the move from devfs to udev needed some manual stuff, and there have been more things like that. I remember having had plenty of troubles at some points, incredible slowness of kde, or just really long waiting between logging on in (mdk)kdm and finally getting the desktop, and then some. Sure, in most cases those things can be fixed (turning off devfs and turning on udev). But the point is, there should be a smooth upgrade path that my mom can also take without having to call me...

After more thinking, I see the following points: positive: resellers and system vendors will have an easier time; if you sell windows you will have been selling winXP for years, no need to change anything; ok, maybe change your image to include some service pack, they're at SP2 now, after what, 4 years? it's easier in terms of publicity/ads, less confusing to the non-nerds - who, in the end are more plentiful, more used to paying for things/software and who are the ones that Linux is now shaping up for. Negative: those who want bleeding edge aren't served. Maybe for those there can be a middle road, sort of declaring certain cooker packages ok for use - I hope they will do this for gnome 2.10 and kde 3.4 with 10.2 nee lim.ed. Or the bleeding edge guys should use cooker and debug...? In any case, there should be some way to include packages of new releases of xorg, kde, gnome, xfce, gimp, OOo, etc as soon as those become available. Sort of a separation of the Mdk stuff - wizards, gui's and backend tools (urpmi etc) and the included programs. New hardware will not be properly supported. I see a need to release a minor incremental version to support new hardware (chipsets, wifi, etcetc). System vendors doing preinstalled systems will require this, and there must be something like ordering tickets/coupons in the packs, so that after six months, one can order the cd with the new kernel (with improved and added hardware support) and security updates etc.. Some unknowns: will there be a solidly tested and smoothly working upgrade path? It would be about time. Just know you can urpmi your way into the new version... fingers crossed! How will club advantages turn out? What will the release cycle look like exactly? How long beta stadium, how long rc's, how many of those, etc? Will amd64 finally be available for standard clubmembers too, as it should be? (Yes, I think it should be, it's the case with SUSE to make a fair comparison, and also with FC, Ubuntu, Gentoo - of course, Debian, etc - all those offer the amd64 version at the same price as the ia32 version...) (No, not asking for myself, I'm a vip member and a standard member, so I can easily compare the two, but have access to all up to silver level/vip level)

So you're in the group of the cutting edge people. I wonder if Mdk will bring out clubmember isos 3 or 4 times per year - that could satisfy the needs of people like you, who feel their software is out of date if it's older than 6 to 8 months. I agree that KDE is still moving rapidly, and some other parts are too (gnome, xorg, etc), but for instance today, I don't mind if in april this Limited Edition comes out with KDE 3.3.something. BTW there is not going to be any CE or OE anymore. From Warly:

Read this: Mandrakesoft press release on release cycle I think many current users may not like this, but to me, it means Mandrakelinux is growing up. Partners want this. Vendors want this. Linux development is over it's peek of development in terms of what is missing to have a great desktop experience. It's not necessary for most to have the latest versions (except security and other bugfixes). One problem: those 'most' are not necessarily mdk users. Maybe they'll become mdk users? At least, that's what MdkSoft is hoping for sure. Hmm, maybe they can release once a year, boxed sets and all, and do more clubmember releases with fully up-to-date packages (heck, 3 or 4 times per year even) iso downloads...? I still need some time to think this over, but my gut feeling is that some will be upset, all those who wanted Mdk for the cutting edge-ness, and some will like this for the promise of solidness. I'm in the latter group. What are your thoughts?

adamw, I think dragonmage is correct, the lilo restore function just rewrites the saved lilo image that is in /boot/boot.0200 (boot.0300 etc)...